NEWS

SMOKE on Thai PBS

Thai PBS aired SMOKE: A Crisis in Northern Thailand in 2 segments on April 8th and 9th, 2016 as part of their Citizen Reporter series.

Check Chiang Mai’s PM 2.5 Air Pollution Levels Here

CityNews – The Pollution Control Department of Thailand has a website where you can check PM 2.5 levels around Chiang Mai, but it is difficult to get the results you are looking for. Here is a step by step guide on how to find the numbers.

CityNews – 17th March 2016 US Consul General Michael Heath hosted a group of about two dozen interested parties to a panel discussion after watching an updated version of Marisa Marchitelli’s film Smoke: A Crisis in Northern Thailand.

“We can all see that the pollution is better this year than last,” said Heath in an opening speech, “but whether, or how much, that can be attributed to the government’s efforts we are unsure.” The US Consulate General says that the United States government has recently donated 70,000 USD to Warm Heart Foundation, a non-profit organisation which is currently pioneering the research as well as implementation of bio char as a solution to the pollution problems. Read about it here.

The US Consulate is also publishing daily reports of the PM2.5 levels on its Facebook page to keep the public informed, though says that credit for this should be given to local authorities who post original data on their site.

“Things are happening,” said Marchitelli who was interviewed in Citylife in February. “People are connecting to each other, ideas are being shared and spread about and important people are taking this seriously.” Since the release of the film less than two months ago, she said, it has been shown in many local Thai schools, and has inspired Chiang Mai resident Clyde Fowle, who has recently retired from McMillan Publishing, to create a Thai language lesson plan to teach children about pollution. She went on to say that she moderated a discussion recently with a group from the Young President Organisation, an organisation of peers who reached great wealth or success at a young age, about the pollution problems. As a result, the group has pledged to fund an awareness campaign. Not only that, a journalist from Singapore’s Straights Time is currently working on an in-depth article about this issue, focusing on Chiang Mai.

Editorial by Pim Kemasingki, Citylife Magazine February 2016

It rained last night and the temperature has dropped to wintery levels. As I was checking Facebook this morning before coming to work, I saw that a young intern who had been with us a few years ago had just posted, “So happy it rained, no pollution this year!”

There are a lot of misconceptions about the ever-alarming annual pollution likely to be heading our way in the coming weeks.

You watch the news and see talking heads waxing ignorance about how the pollution is coming over from Myanmar, blaming Shan State for most of our smog. You read blogs where people recall similar brown skies in days of yore, insisting that nothing much has changed, that it’s all quite normal. You follow angry expats on forums, outraged about how Thais don’t care about the pollution and that nothing is being done by authorities to combat the noxious haze. You talk to your friends who say that the miasma we take in with every breath doesn’t really harm them, what’s a watery eye or blocked nose now and then? You find yourself in conversations with people who are so angry at farmers in the highlands they think they should all be rounded up and jailed. You hear conversations where people discuss safety levels, and how we aren’t that far over it…surely. You sneer at conglomerates culpable for much of the burning while buying their products at Makro. You see girls on bikes wearing thin Hello Kitty masks, seemingly more as a fashion statement than any real shield against pesky particulates.

SMOKE used as an English language learning tool

Clyde Fowle, a locally based teacher and teacher trainer (and ex-educational publisher) has created materials for English teachers to use with their students in class to help Thai students understand, and explore further, the issues raised in the documentary. The materials are suitable for students with a good intermediate (B1+) level of English. He’s looking at ways of sharing these materials with as many teachers in Northern Thailand as possible. For a copy of the worksheet and teacher’s notes visit RESOURCES, or if you would like to arrange a teacher’s workshop and screening of the film, e-mail him at clydefowle@hotmail.com.

Pop Areeya (ป็อป อารียา) talks about Northern Thailand’s Air Pollution Crisis on the Radio

96.5FM
February 1, 2016

One Woman Warrior: Marisa Marchitelli’s Obsession to Wake Us All Up to the Gravity of Air Pollution, Citylife Magazine February 2016

“Many of you may have liked the Fire Reports Chiang Mai Facebook page which was set up last year by Marisa Marchitelli. Some of you may even have seen her recent video on Vimeo, ‘Smoke: A Crisis in Northern Thailand’. What you may not know is that since April of 2015 Italian/US/Thai Marisa, 36, has been investigating and filming, all at her own expense, the ever-increasing crisis we all face with the annual air pollution, in the process bringing invested parties together to the table and raising a significant amount of awareness on this subject.”